Column: GWU chasing NCAA berth at Big South tournament

By Alan Ford

Published: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 02:54 PM.

Yet even with the momentum the team has, it would a considerable achievement if the ’Dogs turn this into a memorable weekend.

First off, that’s why the bye the team earned by placing second in the South Division meant so much. When Sunday rolls around, it’s not too often someone that had to win four games cuts down the nets. But Holtmann points out, he’s seen it before, in fact he experienced it as an assistant coach at Ohio University.

Also, wacky things tend to happen in tournament settings. For example, in Tuesday’s opening round at the Big South tournament the higher-seeded team lost three of the four games.

But this is a confident group GWU sends on the court, largely because it’s been through the kind of battles few teams could have survived. In the last two seasons, 33 of its games have been two-possession games or less at the end.

Holtmann’s thoughts on the matter, which he learned from one of his own coaches, is that confidence comes from competence. It’s something you have to earn.

This Gardner-Webb squad has done that. It carries an all-or-nothing attitude on the court each time it plays. The ’Dogs just hope that confidence, along with a few shots dropping in from the perimeter, can take them where they’re headed.

Well, for the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, it’s the time where people have always said “when push comes to shove…”

The ’Dogs enter the fray in the Big South Conference tournament Thursday night at 6 at Coastal Carolina’s HTC Center. They face a 13-19 Campbell squad they know all too well — GWU dropped a 93-81 triple-overtime struggle at Buies Creek in their only meeting of the regular season.

Coach Chris Holtmann’s squad’s strong stretch run — seven straight wins — got the team to the 20-win plateau for the first time in nine years. But if you talk to the GWU players, to a man they’ll tell you the job isn’t done.

Winning the league tournament and getting into the NCAA tournament — both of which would be firsts for the GWU men’s program — is the ultimate goal.

Gardner-Webb has reached this level with team chemistry and on-court leadership as much as by talent. It isn’t the biggest team in the league, nor the fastest.

Defensively, though, the Runnin’ Bulldogs would argue they are equal to anyone else in tenacity. Stats bear that out as they’ve held teams to only 60.5 points/game.

Stand near the GWU bench when an opponent crosses midcourt with the basketball, it won’t be long before you hear Holtmann, the Big South Coach of the Year, yell: “heat ’em up!” to his defenders. They definitely get the message.

Yet even with the momentum the team has, it would a considerable achievement if the ’Dogs turn this into a memorable weekend.

First off, that’s why the bye the team earned by placing second in the South Division meant so much. When Sunday rolls around, it’s not too often someone that had to win four games cuts down the nets. But Holtmann points out, he’s seen it before, in fact he experienced it as an assistant coach at Ohio University.

Also, wacky things tend to happen in tournament settings. For example, in Tuesday’s opening round at the Big South tournament the higher-seeded team lost three of the four games.

But this is a confident group GWU sends on the court, largely because it’s been through the kind of battles few teams could have survived. In the last two seasons, 33 of its games have been two-possession games or less at the end.

Holtmann’s thoughts on the matter, which he learned from one of his own coaches, is that confidence comes from competence. It’s something you have to earn.

This Gardner-Webb squad has done that. It carries an all-or-nothing attitude on the court each time it plays. The ’Dogs just hope that confidence, along with a few shots dropping in from the perimeter, can take them where they’re headed.